Wayward Guardian: Guardian Saga

By Arlin Fehr

Sci-Fi that's easy to get into, perfect for a bus ride home or waiting at the doctors office. Doesn't require a degree in astrophsyics to enjoy.

Book 2 Available now, look for Guardian of Isolation.

No Hope of Rescue.
No Way Home.
An Enemy Within.

At the very edge of Humanity's reach, looming questions that will send ripples through all of space lay unanswered. However the crew of the Azure Dream, a colony ship on a voyage to a new home, have more immediate concerns.

Captain Howard Fredrick didn't think he had any more missions left in him, but when Axion Data Systems offers him a contract that promises to get his sick wife the treatment she needs, he agrees to take on one last challenge. The mission was anything but routine.

When an unseen threat endangers the lives of everyone aboard the ship, Captain Howard and his crew must band together and fight for their survival. There is no help coming, no one to rescue them, only their wit, their strength, and their determination will make the difference between making it home, or a cold death in void of space.

Worst of all, not every being on the ship is fighting for the same thing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ravania Entertainment
• Release date: Sep 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386787716

Book preview

Prolouge

Reasons

––––––––

Howard and Sohpie's Home

Another message from Axion waited for him. Howard didn't even bother opening it. Again and again, they had tried to get him to be the captain for a new colonial mission. Again and again, he'd turned them down.

'What's wrong Howard?' asked his wife, Sophie, looking over his shoulder.

'Axion again. They won't relent.'

Howard set his datapad down on the table and reached behind him, pulling one of her hands onto his shoulder. He gave it a squeeze, and she squeezed back.

'They must want the best man for the job,' she said.

'I'm not the only man for the job though.'

'No, but you've got a lot of experience under your belt.'

Howard turned in his chair. The dining room was bright with sunshine, and their quaint country home beamed with warmth.

He looked at his wife and realised how much more frail she looked. It was especially noticeable this spring, as though the winter had sapped more of what little remained of her life.

'I've been gone enough,' he told her gently.

She shuffled over to one of the other chairs, Howard made to get up and help her, but she waved him back down.

With a lump in his throat, he watched her slowly take a seat, the effort clear on her face.

Once she was settled, Howard relaxed a little and watched her. She had something on her mind, he could tell that much. Something she didn't want to say.

Outside the window, a bird lighted on their apple tree and chirped. Howard looked at it with a mix of contentment and bitterness. How many such moments had he already missed with his wife because he'd been gone to space so much already.

'I know what you're thinking Howard,' Sophie said.

He looked at her and smiled sadly. 'What am I thinking my dear?'

'You're thinking that you wished you hadn't been gone so much. I saw the way you looked at that bird.'

Howard nodded. 'You're right my dear.'

She raised a finger towards him and shook it slowly. 'Don't think like that Howard Friedrick. If it wasn't for your times out there as a ship captain, I never would have lived as long as I have. Treating me hasn't been cheap you know.'

Howard leaned his head back and sighed. 'I know that. I'm still not happy about it.'

'I've had a good life you know.'

Howard shook his head. 'Don't talk like that, you aren't dead yet.'

Her face flashed with frustration. 'I know that. I don't plan on changing that fact any time soon either.

'Sixty-six years old, and you still don't know how to talk to your wife,' she said.

'I'm still figuring it out. It's an ongoing project,' he replied.

She nodded.

They sat there in silence for what seemed like a long time, just living the moment together. Finally, Sophie broke the silence.

'I think you should accept Axion's offer.'

Howard frowned, feeling a twinge of anger.

'What? How can you say that?' he asked.

Sophie looked equally frustrated at his reaction. 'It's not such a bad idea. The offer is a great one, and we both know that I'm going to need more attention. Our insurance won't cover everything on its own, but Axion will. They know the situation. They offered it themselves. I read the offer last time you showed it to me.'

Howard raised a hand, ready to say something, but couldn't find the words. Slowly he lowered his hand down.

After a moment, he said, 'I don't want to be gone anymore.'

'Doctor Patel has an experimental treatment he wants to try, something cutting edge, but because it's not a mainstream treatment, our insurance won't cover it,' she said.

'What? When did you find this out?'

'Just this morning. I... didn't know how to tell you. I didn't want to get your hopes up.'

Howard couldn't help but smile. 'I appreciate that, unfortunately, it didn't work. My hopes are up.'

'You could take the mission and come back home when it's over,' she offered.

Howard nodded, 'I could. What if it doesn't work though? Then that's more time we don't have.'

Sophie smiled. 'But we'd have a chance at more time together.'

'Alright. I'll send them a message.'

***

Howard sat at his home computer, a much more comfortable place to have a discussion than with his tablet at the table. Sophie was seated in the room too, out of view of the camera but well within earshot.

'Axion Data Sytems, Landon Richards speaking.'

'Landon, it's Howard Fredrick speaking.'

'Captain Fredrick!' the face on the screen smiled at him warmly, 'I hope this means you've reconsidered our offer.'

Howard nodded quickly. 'I have actually. I've decided to accept.'

'That's wonderful news! I can send you the documenta-'

'However, I do have some conditions.'

Landon's face shifted into a more serious and focused expression. 'That's fine, let's talk conditions then. Axion is very eager to have a man of your experience leading this mission.'

'Glad you're willing to hear me out. Firstly, I will need to be paid half my mission compensation now, and half upon completion of the mission.'

Landon leaned back in his seat. 'That is an unusual request given what I've read about your employment history, you don't usually work that way.'

'I have certain obligations that I have to meet before I can leave Earth again, I'm sure you understand,' Howard said.

Landon nodded. 'I'm sure we can work with that. Anything else?'

'I need my wife to be covered under the Axion Medical plan, despite a preexisting condition.'

Landon pursed his lips. 'I'd have to run that past our underwriting department, and corporate benefit office. Please understand that since you'd be listed as a contractor, that will be harder to pull off.'

'I understand, but I hope you can make it work. Even if it's only partial coverage, anything is better than nothing,' Howard offered.

'Anything else you need?' Landon asked.

'I'll need passage back to Earth after the mission is over.'

Landon let out a low whistle. 'You are driving one heck of a hard bargain here Captain. There won't be any regular liner's for months after the colony is set up.'

'I will ride back in a cargo barge if I have to, I just can't afford to be away for as long as I normally would.'

'You do understand that normally the Captain takes part in colonial administration after the mission is completed. This is a colony mission after all.'

'I do understand that, and I wish I could be more accommodating than this, but I have extenuating circumstances.'

Landon nodded again. 'Well Captain Fredrick, I know how much we were hoping to have you lead this mission. While I can't promise you any outcomes, I can promise that I'll try. I can try and get you an answer for the first and third conditions right away, but the second will take more doing.'

'I would appreciate it.'

'I'll call you back then,' Landon said.

'Thank you.'

'Talk to you later.'

'Goodbye,' Howard said, switching off the call.

He turned to his wife, 'I guess we wait now.'

'I guess so. What if they don't bite?'

'We'll see how much they come back with, something is better than nothing,' Howard offered.

'I was hoping you'd say that,' she said with a smile.

Chapter ONE

New Horizons

––––––––

Lomard Shipyard

The sun was just cresting over the curve of the Earth. A wall of light started near the top of the wall and worked its way down as the space station continued its rotation around the planet below. Howard Fredrick, crisp in his Axion uniform, raised a hand to his eyes to block some of the light.

This was a familiar sight. He'd seen thousands of such sunrises in his career in space. Still, he did enjoy taking a quiet moment from time to time to appreciate their beauty. Even now, with humanity reaching across the stars, the number of people who got to see this, truly see this, was in the minority.

Howard looked down at his datapad, and called up the message that had brought him here up here.

'Dear Captain Fredrick

'I found out about your wife while trying to get her covered by our employee benefits. I want to offer you my condolences.

'If I had known that she was suffering as she was, I wouldn't have been so impatient with your conditions. As it is, I'm glad that I can help you out with that situation in at least some small way.

'You know we already accepted two of your conditions, we were just waiting for news from our corporate benefits department for the last one.

'I'm pleased to say that heart beat out over cold business this time. Though our insurance provider is unwilling to cover your wife's condition, we at Axion are willing to offer you a dollar match for her next batch of treatments with Doctor Patel.

'I spoke with the Doctor at some length, and he told me about his research and how much hope he has in this new treatment for your wife's degenerative  muscular disorder. He stressed how this could be a game changer.

'As such, we just couldn't pass up this chance to do something good, not only for you and your wife but for the future as well. Our contributions will help him continue his research.

'So in short, for every dollar, you spend on this, we'll match it, giving you an effective fifty percent discount. Beyond that, we'll be helping Doctor Patel with further funding after that, but that's between him and us.

'I hope this is acceptable to you, we eagerly await your reply.

'Landon Richards

'Head of Human Resources

'Axion Data Systems'

It had been acceptable. Howard and his wife had been happy with the result and had eagerly agreed. Howard looked up from the pad and smiled. He looked back out the window.

'Howard Fredrick?'

Howard turned to the sound of his name being called. A thin man with short black hair was walking toward him. He had a data pad under his arm and smile on his face.

Howard held out his hand to shake, and the man took it eagerly.

'I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, you are?' Howard asked.

'Keith Loheim, chief enginer for the Azure Dream.'

Howard nodded. 'On my crew then. Pleasure to meet you.'

'And you, Captain. I read your personnel file when I signed on for the mission. You have a very impressive dossier.'

Howard smiled. 'Years of not dying is what that amounts to. I didn't do anything spectacular really.'

'You got your jobs done and your crews home, even when things went wrong. You served on some of early Jump Drive equipped ships. That took a special kind of person.'

'It took someone with a strong sense of wanderlust,' Howard said.

Keith nodded, and looked out the window. He raised a hand and then looked down.

'Oh wow, that's the ship isn't it?'

Howard walked closer to the window and looked down too. Beneath them, the shadowy shape of the hull of a ship stretched out among the spiderlike arms of the ship yard complex. With the sun shinning in their eyes, it was hard to make out details, but then the sun slipped under the shape of the craft, and it was lit with a glow from behind. The station lights pointed on the hull gave them a view of the equipment still being put in place. As they watched, a large container was being manoeuvred into place by small pod like ships.

'That must be it. The Azure Dream,' Howard said quietly. That was to be his home for the next four months.

'It's bigger in person. You hardly get a real sense of the scale until you see it.'

Howard glanced at his watch. Keith noticed him and grinned.

'We're late aren't we?' Keith asked.

'Not if we move quick. Board Room 3 is just down this passageway. Besides, I doubt they'll get to anything really juicy without me there.'

Keith nodded and together they set off, down the passage and to a waiting meeting

***

Lombard Ship Yard, Board Room 3

'Captain Fredrick, Mr. Loheim, glad you could make it,' said a beaming Landon Richards.

Two men walked into an already full board room. At one end of a long table, a man in a pinstriped suit stood with his back to a projector display. The display showed a upper case blue 'A' in a the centre of a circle of black. It was the Axion Data System Logo. Beneath it were the words 'Future Proof'.

The two men took seats around the table. Landon continued with his presentation.

'As all of you here are no doubt aware, Axion Data Systems has decided to fund a new  colonization project for the International Space Agency. Axion takes this responsibility very seriously, and only the finest equipment has been secured for this ship. We have hand picked the crew from a pool of rigorously tested candidates. As per your mission contracts each of you will be the department heads for this mission.

'Most of you already know Captain Howard Fredrick. Captain Fredrick will be commanding this mission. He has years of experience behind him, having commanded many missions both in the private sector and for government organizations. This will be Captain Fredrick's first colony mission, but we at Axion are excited to have a man of his experience on our team.'

The presenter smiled a well practised smile and continued his presentation. He clicked a pointer in his hand. The image being displayed by the projector changed. It showed a camera feed of the Azure Dream, sitting nestled in the arms of the space dock. Its new hull plating gleamed in the sunlight.

It had two distinct sections separated by long scaffold beams running from one section to the other. The beams connected from the bottom corners, and the top centre of the ship.

'This is the Azure Dream. She will be your home for the next few months. She is our pride and joy. The newest and most advanced ship of the Axion fleet. Packed stem to stern with the finest colonial infrastructure our not inconsiderable resources can buy.

'As many of you know, this same basic design has been used, with only minor adjustments, over the past ten years of human kinds colonization,' the presenter said. 'You can see here on the display,  the core of the ship is mostly complete. The large space between the two sections will be filled up by the modular bays that will house all the colonists and colonial infrastructure. Presently we've started loading the bays.' He pointed to the one Howard had seen being manoeuvred earlier, 'This is one of the living quarters bays being positioned now.'

Landon moved to a new camera feed, this one focusing on the front of the ship. The front section of the ship was wide at the back, and tapered forward and downwards, forming a kind of curving nose section, like the front of an airplane.

'The forward section houses the command and control systems, including the bridge and the Guardian Control Room. This is also the area where the bulk of the crew quarters and storage areas are located,' the presenter said.

Along the hull of the front section, there were sensors and communication arrays being attached by the work crews.

'As you can see, there's still some last minute work to be done. A lot of the external equipment still needs to be attached.'

Landon switched the camera, now it displayed the back section of the ship.

'The aft section of the ship houses the engineering bay and the ship's engines. When I say engines, I do mean both the sub light engines and the jump drives.'

A hand went up.

'Yes, Mr Loheim?'

'How do we get from engineering to the bow section when there's no modules to walk through?'

'When the space between the aft and bow sections is empty like this, there's a pair of retractable corridors that can be used to connect the two sections of the ship. Granted, it'd be a bit of a walk, but it'll get the job done. Of course, in an emergency, you could always get in a space suit and walk along this bit here.' Landon pointed at a large metal strut that stretched from the bow to the aft section along the top of the ship. 'The designers call the this the spine. This is where the power, oxygen, and waste systems run through to feed the colony modules once they're all in.

'But all that aside, the cherry on top of this multi-billion dollar sundae is XO-33. The newest christened core of our XO line of Guardian cores. The XO series has been used extensively in ship based capacities, everything from deep space transports, to survey ships, with a few patrol cruisers thrown in for good measure. All without a hitch.'

Keith raised his hand again.

'Yes, Mr Loheim?'

'Has an XO